Applicants claim priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 of German Application No. 199 01 422.1 filed Jan. 18, 1999. Applicants also claim priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7120 of PCT/DE99/04068 filed Dec. 22, 1999. The international application under PCT article 21(2) was not published in English.
The invention relates to a cooling structure of the combustion chamber for a rocket engine.
For the purpose of increasing the heating of the coolant in rocket combustion chambers that are cooled in a regenerative manner, provision is made in the prior art for either uncooled longitudinal ribs in the wall of the rocket combustion chamber on the side of the hot gas, or for structures of combustion chambers that are comprised of a plurality of individual tubes. Highly conductive materials such as, for example copper or copper alloys are required for high-pressure combustion chambers because of the generally high thermal load acting on the wall of the combustion chamber.
In conjunction with the concept that comprises uncooled longitudinal ribs provided in the hot-gas wall, the height of the ribs and thus the gain in the amount of heat that can be dissipated is very substantially limited due to the thermal load acting on the rib. As far as the type of construction comprising small tubes is concerned, the maximally achievable increase in the surface area and thus in the heat exchange are very substantially restricted as well under purely geometric aspects. Both concepts in the prior art, therefore, are afflicted with the drawback that the amount of heat that can be dissipated into the cooling medium is unsatisfactory.
Therefore, the invention is based on the problem of proposing measures by means of which it is possible to further enhance the heat exchange with the cooling fluid by way of the structure of the combustion chamber. Said problem is solved with the features of claim 1. Alternative embodiments of the invention are specified in the dependent claims.
For certain concepts of rocket engines it is necessary to maximize the amount of heat supplied to the coolant by way of the structure of the combustion chamber. The goal of the invention is to increase such heat exchange by means of longitudinal ribs that project into the combustion chamber and are actively cooled. The thermomechanical integrity of the structure of the ribs can be assured through active cooling of the ribs in connection with high ribs as well. As compared to the state of the art it is thus possible to increase the size of the surface areas transferring heat and consequently the amount of heat exchanged from the structures of the combustion chamber.